MUCH LOVE PART THREE: Toronto’s own EYEDA SOPHIA is back with a new full-length release.

This latest offering finds EYEDA SOPHIA in fine form, rhymes right and riddim tight, handling verses hooks and choruses, rappin’ and singing with equal facility, every beat dropped  demonstrating vivacious vibes, and versatility. 

EYEDA SOPHIA throwing darts like bad boots stomping all over the six, sashay n’ slide down city subways and patios, thru spring winter summer fall, slinging soul singing pop, rocking the blues in those same damn shoes. 

The music puts one hand on its heart, the other on your shoulder, it’s with you when the sun goes down and the streets get empty. MUCH LOVE PART THREE is here to chill with you, stoned as the sun comes up and the city goes to work, this album will have your back when you’re late night buzzed, or day-drunk grabbing some more from the jar store, navigating transit and trying to act normal in public, trying to restrain and maintain without dancing looking based bopping to that beat BUT

It’s hard to NOT catch a groove off the new platter from one of Toronto’s best emerging artists and most passionate performers; MUCH LOVE part THREE. So let’s go to the source and ask the emcee herself about the deets and peeps on the new album, and the state of the arts: where she sees herself career- and scene-wise nowadays

Sammy:

What connects the three parts of MUCH LOVE and sets them apart from your other releases?

 

Eyeda:

The Much Love series is all about love. Self-love, platonic love, unconditional love and romance. The series has grown with me through (…) my different interpretations of what it means to love and be loved. They all distinctly call back to my roots in spoken word poetry and embody an element of softness. 

 

Sammy:

How did you decide upon the guest features on MUCH LOVE part 3? 

 

Eyeda:

The guest verses on this album are my peers:

Pharah is a friend I met years ago in the cypher scene, and she also happens to be one of my favourite artists in the city. ‘Hung Up’ was a chance for us to talk our shit, and tell a story about toxic love. 

Migs is a rapper I've also known for a while and I knew he'd add the perfect energy to ‘Wait 4 U’. All of my features are (…) extremely intentional (…) I usually work with people I know well and respect. 

 

Sammy:

It pays off because all of the vocalists on MUCH LOVE Part 3 sound like they’re on the same page, aiming at the same targets. How has your approach to writing lyrics and music changed in the time since MUCH LOVE Part 2?

Eyeda:

Much Love pts. 1 & 2 were both written in my very early 20s. They were my first chance at sharing my story. Everything was very new. All of my love and life experiences felt naive (…) but there was a beauty in that.

 

The third installment is a closing (…) chapter in my life. I'm older now and I've come to a point of self realization. The music on this album has a ring of closure. 

It's more sure of itself. I know what I want, I know what I like, and I definitely have learned how to love in a way that serves me. 

 

Sammy

That’s some satisfying closure to wrap up a trilogy! Name and the voice is still the same, but the sound and the style have got seasoned. As you’ve documented yourself living, loving and growing, how has the music scene in Toronto changed around you since your last album?

 

Eyeda:

My last album was The Esplanade and I dropped that in 2020. I always call it my pandemic album. It was about isolation, overthinking and changing. 

 

Before the pandemic, I was very active in the arts scene. After that, everything changed. Venues closed. People were anxious and tired. I think I forgot how to socialize. I felt a lot less like myself after the dust settled and I've been trying to pick up the pieces ever since. 

 

 Sammy 

I can relate to that! I think a lot of people can. So where do you find yourself now, like what’s your priorities as an artist? Is writing, recording or performing most important to you?

Eyeda:

All 3 are a priority to me, but I hold (…) writing and performing close to my heart. Writing is a personal experience. It's intimate. Writing is my favourite way to release and to say all that can't be said.

Performing is a shared experience, but it's where I come to life. When the two are fully integrated (freestyle performance), there is a passionate synergy that feels almost electric. I love being able to access these emotions and parts of me. Being a performing artist is a beautiful experience. You can lean into the exaggerated, the theatre of it all.

 

Sammy:

Word up, that performance sphere can be where we express a whole other side of ourselves. How do you feel you’ve developed as an artist in the five years since the first two MUCH LOVE releases?

 

Eyeda:

I'm the same person, but I'm grown now. My perspective has evolved, along with my writing style and the intention behind my words. I've calmed down; I'm not as bitter about the past. I'm more self-reflective than sad. I've wrestled with a lot of doubt in the past and I like to think I've found a balance today. I'm a more versatile, well rounded artist than I was when I started out. 

 

Sammy:

There’s a change in your tone on these new songs, both brash and vulnerable but yeah, balanced and grounded. What music are you inspired by? Are there artists you can always return to, or do you seek out new music constantly?

 

Eyeda:

I love new music, but I have comfort music that I return to depending on my mood. There are albums that helped me through hard times and I revisit them to soothe. Others, I just love and hold dearly. 

 

New music doesn't mean new to everyone. I love finding old music that is new to me. I miss crate digging, I need to do that soon. If I do listen to new rap, it's usually from femme and queer artists. 

 

Sammy:

Crate digging can take many forms nowadays. What does an old school jam mean to you? Do you prefer performing with backing tracks, a DJ, or a live band?

Eyeda:

Live band. All day, any day, every day if I could. The music comes alive with a band. There's nothing more I'd rather do than perform with a live band. I would do it every single night if I could. It really breathes life into me. 

 

Sammy:

Preach girl! Everyone gets jazzed off that synergy: the vocalist, the audience, the band… so when did you first start writing lyrics? What keeps you motivated to continue this artistic practice?

Eyeda:

I started writing poetry at about 10 or 11. That's that age where you start to really build your identity and the person you are. That's also when I fell in love with music and Hip Hop specifically. I've always been really certain about what I wanted to do with my life. I wanted to be an artist (or a journalist, but here we are). 

 

I think of myself as a work in progress and it's a constant motivation for me. I compete with myself. I want to be better than I was yesterday. I look forward to my future works, the people, places and sounds that I'll find my way to. I'm driven by passion and (…) genuine love for this shit. 

 

Sammy:

Do you feel that hip hop can still have a positive political impact?

Eyeda:

 

All art is inherently political, especially Hip Hop. If you can't find the positive political impact that Hip Hop as a culture continues to make, you haven't looked hard enough. 

 

Sammy:

Touché! So who are the Canadian musicians you’re most excited about this year?

Eyeda:

I have so many favourites. My heart really lives at home and I love how much talent is in the city. Keysha Freshh dropped a great album a couple months ago. So did Mustafa The Poet. Strawberry Shortemper is going to release something in the new year I'm excited about. TOBi and Clairmont The Second are also super dope. Oh and LU KALA, I think she's the next big thing, she's a starrrr

 

Sammy

Ok LU KALA, will check her out! And always down for some fresh Strawberry Shortemper! 

How else does Toronto inspire you? What non-musical influences play the largest part in your creative process?

Eyeda:

I always say this: Life experience shapes my writing and pushes my pen forward. I've always led with my heart on my sleeve. My emotional state greatly influences my creative process. I think it's one of my greatest strengths as an artist. 

The biggest difference between Eyeda Sophia and Tupac Shakur is in the way that she’s more free to describe an inner landscape of emotional signifiers, while his signifying energy is largely spent in coding those emotional expressions so as to bury them in subtext.

Blurred lines, tween thrums and rhymes, poetry and storytelling, singing and emceeing, freetyling and performing, writing and rapping, protest and posture, confessional and confrontation, walking the talk and talking it, bodying and body snatching, hip hop and rnb.

We’re all walking that line now, stretching back from the mid nineties, Fertile Crescent of the post- techno era for beats and electronic sounds, this is our Jazz now, rock combos synthesized and sampled, pitch corrected and meticulously quantized. 

EYEDA SOPHIA prefers live band sounds: rhythm section, guitars, and jazz lounge vibes.

This live element grounds her music and evokes an in-person representation bristling with swagger and energy, her vox swishing and slashing through sounds both sweet and snarly, in turns demure, sassy, brash and delicate.

Featured artists Miignomics ( wait for you), Empara and James Bailey (bad girl) and Pharah (hung up) are all gut-wrenchingly direct, soulful and selfassured. 

All this to say that it seems clear EYEDA SOPHIA is fully committed to the tradition of oral culture we currently refer to as hip hop. Nowhere will be found even a splash of dub on dem vox, vocalisations been left clean and clear, foregrounding each artists distinct sonic signatures and unique emotional tones. No parlour tricks from the pop-charlatans bag of slickness, this production is no collage but a floral arrangement of real human performances, this is music meant to walk with you through summer nights, coming through on moving days, party with you, cry with you, laugh with you and most of all raise up that voice and SHOUT ALONG!

EYEDA SOPHIA (Artist: rapper, poet, curator, collaging) can be found on instagram and at their websiteeyedasophia.com